Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1887-10-07

the wrecking OF the Madison Fire Insur-
ance company at Madison Aug. i, 1881,
without mentioning Wins by name, and
that Wins had come to his law Office
with his "Yazoo t~actics'' and threatened
him with personal injury. They
clinched and WEIGH threw Villas to the
floor. An account of the encounter af-
forwards appeared in The Dairy.
after getting Villas down." continued
he, h said he wanted to talk to me. i
let him up, and then we bad some con-
versation. asked him how much money
he had taken upol the breaking up of
the insurance company. He said he had
taken $1S, 600, and stated the sums two or
three others of the directors had taken.
l told him he had no business with that
money-that 1t belonged to the members
OF the company. He said he wa sorry he
took it, but that a man hated to put his
hand in his pocket and take out $1S, 900
when he had once got it in. ! told him
the stain would stick to him as long as
he lived. l had known him from nebul-
GUS beyhood, and this was the first
trouble we had ever had. He said: IF
you will give me a week or two of time
l will satisfy you that I was entitled to
the money He never kept his promise,
az L VA g ihh
spoken with him since.
about August, 1881, I published an
article headed the History of a Crime
and circulated it very generally. / gave
many of the facts of the wrecking of that
company which were referred to in my
later publications. M. Villas made no
complaint of that publication. Then 1
should have let the matter rest had he not
In March, 1885, imposed himself upon
the president by taking q seat in his cab
met. l was delayed in my later publi-
cation by the Importantly of his personal
friends. 1t was not until I was advised
that they had no more favors in the way
of offices to ask that / let slip the publ
cation upon which the indictments are
founded.
Mr.. WEIGH then wentinto a long state
ment of the affairs of the company of
which he was one of the original incor-
porators. He brought out documents
and letters continually to support his
statements. Mr.. Villas, he claimed, had
long ago had a chance to meet these ac-
cusations, but had never lone so.
Asked rs to the reason for the present
suit, Mr.. WEIGH said: 81 don't blame
him for prosecuting me. He has got to
do it or go out of the cabinet"
MI. WEIGH is a gray haired man, with
keen black eyes. He has been in Mime
apolis only a few years. He is senior
member of the law firm of WEIGH, Bot
kin s. WEIGH. He is rather a peculiar
man. There is probably not a man In
Minneapolis who has so perfect a COM
mand of inyective. Some of the legal
documents which he has filed In the
District Court are among the most pc
culiar of their species. He is an ardent
democrat, but did not take a prominentpart
In Minneapolis politics until last spring.
He then made several appearances on the
public platform. The paper which he
publishes is a curiosity. Over /. 900 mum
bers have been published. 1t is a single
sheet about twelve by six inches. sIsonor
Thy Father and Thy Mether. y Was form
erly the motto at the head, The "Home
Items" contain all sorts of queer entries
in regard 20 the coming and going OF
members of the family, the days callers,
purchases at the stores, etc.